Washington's statistics for 2011

Sifting through statistics is about as rewarding as panning for gold in a dry creek bed. Occasionally, though, you'll find a nugget of a stat which, for the moment at least, seems as big as Fort Knox.

Drab: In comparing last year's team with this year's team, as shown in Table 3 below, Washington has improved in 18 of the 26 statistical measurements. However, statistics concerning pass defense and total defense have worsened, with UW ranking 116th and 106th in FBS football, respectively.

Now for the nugget, which was uncovered by sifting through in the game-by-game statistics, much like colliding protons to find quarks.

Nugget: In its 7 wins this season, Washington has held its opponents to 49.6 yards rushing, while in its 6 losses, UW has given up 307.67 rushing yards per game. Ironically, the data from Table 1 suggests that stopping the run has been UW's most critical defensive statistic this season, pass defense notwithstanding.

In keeping with this stat, note that while senior defensive tackle Alameda Ta'amu won the L. Wait Rising Defensive Lineman of the Year Award, which was presented at the UW Awards Banquet, he failed to make either the Pac-12's first or second all-conference team, as selected by the Pac-12 coaches.

Conclusion: Our nugget of a stat says that the Huskies will begin to compete with the big boys, as in the top 25, when defensive coordinator Nick Holt begins to think "SEC front four" -- or, say, a Haloti Ngata -- when out on the recruiting trail and settles for nothing less.

An improved front four -- and pass rush-- would help with the Huskies' pass defense, which, of course, deserves serious consideration as well.

Table 1. Defensive stats in wins and losses.

Washington's Defense	Rushing yards p/g	Passing yards p/g
Seven winning games	49.6	342.7
Six losing games	307.67	200.17

 

School	W/L	Rush	UW Rush
Eastern Washington	W	31 yards	148 yards
Hawaii	W	55	151
Nebraska	L	309	146
California	W	108	117
Utah	W	17	185
Colorado	W	62	295
Stanford	L	446	172
Arizona	W	36	179
Oregon	L	212	82
USC	L	252	46
Oregon State	L	145	160
Washington State	W	38	143
Baylor	L	482	182

Table 2. NCAA Statistics

NCAA Statistics

Table 3. Statistics over the last three years.

2009

2010

2011

1. Ball Control                            

Time of Poss.	30:25	7	29.06	7	29:51	6
3rd-down conversion	46.2%	1	32%	10	45.9%	3
4th-down conversion	60%	3	42%	6	56.2%	T-2
First downs	244	6	240	8	274	8

2. Blocking and Tackling

Rushing Offense	139.0	7	172.2	5	154.3	6
Passing Offense	236.5	2	190.4	8	255.5	7
Rushing Defense	148.8	9	190.5	8	168.7	9
Passing Defense	240.7	7	194.4	2	284.6	11
Pass Eff Defense	139.8	9	126.43	5	137.5	7
Pass Eff Offense	130.5	3	121.68	8	157.4	4
Total Offense	375.5	7	362.5	6	409.8	7
Total Defense	389.5	8	384.8	6	453.3	11
Sacks	29	5	28	6	28	7
Sacks Allowed	28	6	24	4	34	11

3. Mistakes

Penalties	49.5	7	56.2	5	59.5	5
Opponent Penalties	54.4	4	63.7	3	55.4	9
Turnover Margin	.33, +4	3	.15	6	.08,+1	5

4. Field Position

Kickoff Returns	18.6	9	20.9	10	23.3	3
Punt Returns	9.5	6	4.9	10	9.2	6
Punting net/punt	36.5	6	36.5	7	40.3	2
Kickoff coverage	38.4	8	39.1	10	41.0	10

5. Scoreboard, Baby

Field Goals	.857	2	.65%	6	.688	T-6
Redzone Offense	85.7%	t-3	84%	3	88.5	3
Redzone Defense	82.0%	5	92%	10	90.2	10
Points For	26.1	7	21.8	8	33.4	4
Points Against	26.7	9	29.3	8	36.5	11

Table 4. Keith Price's cumulative passing efficiency.

Team	C	A	Y	T	I	PE	C	A	Y	T	I	PE
EWU	17	25	102	3	0	149.87	17	25	102	3	0	149.87
Hawai'i	18	25	315	4	1	222.64	35	50	417	7	1	182.26
Nebraska	21	37	274	4	2	143.83	56	87	691	11	3	165.91
California	19	25	292	3	0	213.71	75	112	983	14	3	176.58
Utah	22	30	226	3	1	162.95	97	142	1209	17	4	173.70
Colorado	21	28	257	4	0	199.24	118	170	1466	21	4	177.91
Stanford	23	36	247	1	1	125.13	141	206	1713	22	5	168.69
Arizona	16	30	277	1	3	121.89	157	236	1990	23	8	162.74
Oregon	24	35	143	2	2	110.32	181	271	2133	25	10	155.97
USC	12	16	125	0	0	140.62	193	287	2258	25	10	155.11
OSU	5	9	76	1	1	140.93	198	296	2334	26	11	154.68
WSU	21	29	291	3	0	190.84	219	325	2625	29	11	157.91
Baylor	23	37	438	4	0	197.28	242	362	3063	33	11	161.93